Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s executive vice president and CEO, told The Associated Press on Wednesday — the eve of its annual convention in Pittsburgh — that the group’s opposition to President Obama is “no surprise,” but it felt a need to come out early and strongly.

LaPierre believes the president has tried to “fog the issue through the 2012 election” and obscure his long-standing opposition to gun owners’ rights.

“President Obama gives lip service to the Second Amendment, but what I really believe is going on is it’s just not a convenient time for a fight on the Second Amendment” politically for Obama, LaPierre said.

LaPierre said Obama, as an Illinois state senator, voted for or otherwise supported handgun bans, semi-automatic weapons bans, eliminating right-to-carry laws and raising excise taxes on guns, among other things.

“Then he announced for president and leafleted the country saying there’s no difference between Barack Obama and John McCain,” LaPierre said.

Although Congress approved expanded rights for people to bring guns onto Amtrak trains and carry them in national parks during his first term, President Obama’s administration includes “people who’ve spent their lifetime trying to destroy the Second Amendment,” LaPierre said, naming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN Ambassador Susan Rice and Obama’s two Supreme Court appointees, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

“You’ve got two Supreme Court nominations that pretty well throw down the gauntlet about what this election’s about,” LaPierre said. “One more (Obama) Supreme Court nominee breaks the back of the Second Amendment in this country.”

“That’s what’s in store for gun owners in this country” if President Obama is re-elected, LaPierre said.

That’s why the NRA, which typically waits until the election year to throw its weight behind — or against — candidates, is speaking up now, LaPierre said.

The White House declined to comment, but referred to an editorial the president submitted last month to The Arizona Daily Star.

In it, Obama reiterated that he believes “the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms” and notes, as LaPierre did, a change in the law allowing gun owners to carry weapons in national parks and wildlife refuges.

The president called for better enforcement of firearms laws and improving the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. He also called for a discussion about “common-sense” gun regulations.

“Others will predictably cast any discussion as the opening salvo in a wild-eyed scheme to take away everybody’s guns,” Obama wrote, without naming names. “And such hyperbole will become the fodder for overheated fundraising letters.”